


The Rescue of Captain America (The Bedtime Story Remix)

by navaan



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Established Relationship, Family, M/M, Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Parent-Child Relationship, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:02:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22808311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: There's a lot of material you can adapt into bedtime stories when your lives are larger than life.....or Tony tells the story of Captain America's rescue with more mermen.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 115
Collections: 2020 Captain America/Iron Man Relay Remix





	The Rescue of Captain America (The Bedtime Story Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fractured Moonlight on the Sea](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22294183) by [EachPeachPearPlum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EachPeachPearPlum/pseuds/EachPeachPearPlum). 



> Written for the Cap-IronMan Remix Relay Fruit Chain 2020 as a remix of the wonderful [**Fractured Moonlight on the Sea**](http://archiveofourown.org/works/22294183) (1623 words) by [**EachPeachPearPlum**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/EachPeachPearPlum). You can find the whole chain of works that followed [.](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2020_Cap_Ironman_Relay_Remix/profile)

"And the soldier knew that only he could stop this weapon of mass destruction," Tony said gravely. 

"So he had to do it?" the girl in his lap asked and looked up at him with wide eyes, burying herself deeper into his embrace. Sarah was only four and she had Tony's piercing blue eyes and dark hair, but she was developing an attitude that marked her every inch as Steve's daughter. 

He pushed a kiss to the top of her head and hugged her a little closer.

"Of course, he had to. That's what heroes do," Tony continued his story. 

Steve appeared in the doorway to watch them, arms folded in front of himself. When he was home for bedtime he always tried to be there to tuck their daughter in too. "Don't give her nightmares," he warned Tony. He knew full well that it would be Tony who'd pay if their little star couldn't sleep because her imagination made all the story monsters come to life. 

Because Sarah furrowed her brow at Steve’s comment and then looked at Tony questioningly, he assured: "The story does have a happy ending." 

He winked at Steve who smiled back, aware of what Tony already knew about the ending of that particular story. After all, Steve was _here_.

"So the soldier knew he had to stop the plane. His best friend had died trying to stop the bomb… They were over the ice of the arctic..."

"Were there bears around?" Sara asked, wibbling excitedly in his arms and leaning forward to look at her bed where among her three favorite stuffed animals sat her newest friend: polar bear Petty. Steve had won it for Sarah at a fun fair.

"Oh, you bet there were," Tony continued, unfazed by the question. "More polar bears around in those days than today. One of them was hunting that day — when he saw the man fall like a meteor from the sky."

"And the plane?"

"He took it down with him," Tony explained, looking at Steve in the door over their daughters head. "He made it explode, made sure nobody could get hurt with the terrible things it held. That’s how he fell."

Sarah nodded and leaned into Tony's embrace.

"The cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean were waiting for our brave soldier," Tony continued in a low voice. "Water engulfed him, icy, cold and more terrifying than any of the monsters he’d fought before. He had known he might not return from this attempt to stop the destruction of American cities and he was used to danger but this wasn’t how he’d expected to die. He had stared death right in the face before and always come out alive..."

"Not this time?" Sarah asked, sounding very worried.

"Oh," Tony said, "as the ice ocean water grabbed him, pulled him under, tried to swallow him, the soldier came face to face with death again and he could hear it whisper: _No, thank you soldier. This is not your day._ "

"He escaped?"

In the door Steve shifted slightly, leaned his head against the frame turning a poignant smile on Sarah. 

"The soldier was as confused as you are," Tony continued and he caught Steve's gaze as he picked up again. "He could feel the fight bleed out of him — something he'd never felt before. But the air was pushed from his lungs and in the dark it became harder and harder to tell which way was up and down."

Tony knew he shouldn't draw out the suspense when Sarah snuggled closer.

"Do you know what happened?" he asked, giving her a way to sneak in her own part of the story if she wanted to.

She shook her head.

"His limbs got heavy as ice started to cover him — and our soldier fell into a restless sleep that he thought he'd never wake up from. But as death had told: _Not that day._ "

"Oh! So he slept like Sleeping Beauty?"

Tony gave Steve a lopsided grin. "He was a good-looking soldier for sure, little bean."

"Did a prince wake him?"

Steve nearly chuckled. 

"Or a princess?" Sarah added after she realized that not all kids had two daddies and there was an option for a princess hero still.

"Nobody could find him," Tony admitted. "He was caught in the middle of the ocean."

"Not even Namor?" 

A few weeks ago, Sarah had learned about Atlantis and asked all kinds of questions about it. The idea that one of her dads was good friends with Namor — or as good as you could be with a difficult character like Namor — had spurred her imagination.

"Well," Tony said. "Namor like everyone else thought the hero had perished. So like everyone else he didn't go looking for him _exactly_. But then something else happened. After years of sleep," Tony explained softly, "the thick layers of ice shifted and the sleeping soldier was dreaming of movement, of seeing the sun again when something crashed into the ice…"

Tony was thinking about the Hulk jumping up and down on the thick layer above what could have been Steve's final grave — before Namor had brought the ice coffin up to the surface. But before he could explain that, Sarah exclaimed: "A mermaid!"

He blinked over at Steve who blinked back and then grinned. He was shaking his head, because he knew how the story went. No mermaid had found Steve in the ice.

But Tony and Sarah had a way of weaving their fairy tales — an unspoken agreement of collaboration. And Tony honored it, always: "In the dark of the waters a light shone brightly on the icy surface that separated the world below from the world up there in those regions. Even in his dream state the soldier, waking little by little, could make out flashes of it beyond the ice. Then for the first time in years, he got a glimpse of colors, of bright red and gold. Something was swimming towards him. Then he could make out a shape! A human shape! But, no, not human… The hands that parted the water were human, yes, but there was an unearthly light shining from the person‘s chest that made it hard to see more of the swimmer. When the shape reached the soldier encased in a block of ice it stopped, surprised. It swam up to the shape it thought it could see in the ice and if there had been air to breathe it would have gasped audibly… _A man_ , the impossible creature thought. And the soldier wouldn’t ever be sure if he was awake or dreaming — but this man out there with the human face, and arms and bare chest had a fishtail..."

"A mermaid!" Sarah squealed in delight, sensing that Tony had adapted to her input.

“A merman. A very handsome merman,” Tony corrected to save his own dignity as he winked at Steve who shook his head in exasperation. 

“That’s not what happened.”

“Shh,” Tony playfully hissed in his direction. “It’s a story.”

“Fairy tales aren’t real,” Sarah explained seriously and then grinned up at Tony. “What did the merman do?”

“He held himself there in the water, contemplating the soldier in the ice. He had a light,” and Tony poked his own chest where these days there was no mechanical heart, no RT, no device embedded to keep him alive, but where Sarah knew a light always shone from Iron Man’s chest. “And with this light the ice became a spectacle in the dark, glittering, silvery and cold. And he could see it clearly. There was a man inside. _Dead_ , the merman thought, because how can anyone be alive in there?”

Steve had shifted in the doorway and he was still wearing the slight frown that said: _Not what happened._

“But he’s alive!” Sara called out. “Isn’t he?”

“Yes, the dreamer was still alive. But he was locked in the ice in his dreaming state, no way to move his legs or arms, no way to call out, no way to even see clearly what was happening.”

Sarah contemplated that. “But you can tell if someone’s alive or dead.”

“With a scanner, yes, or when you can touch,” Tony answered her interjection. “The handsome merman with red and gold scales hadn’t brought one. He hadn’t expected to find a man frozen in ice. He’d been searching for something else entirely when he’d gone for his swim — something green and shiny. But now he couldn’t help but contemplate this mystery. Who was this man? He couldn’t make out the angles of the soldier’s face, or catch a true glimpse of his features — but he could make out the golden color of his hair — and then to his shock he caught a glimpse of the blue uniform, the red and white of the shield at his side.”

Sarah gasped and her little hands came up to push against her mouth in astonishment.

Of course, she knew who this was. She’d heard a variation of this story before — without a merman.

Her eyes found Steve’s who smiled wryly. “Not what happened,” he told Sarah and then winked. 

“Not exactly what happened,” Tony agreed and ruffled Sarah’s hair.

“Does he know he found Captain America?” she whispered.

“Oh, yes. The moment he saw the shield, he knew. Smart merman, you see.”

“Looked a lot like you, yeah,” Steve joined in with that same slightly exasperated expression.

“With fins and a fishtail and webbing between the fingers for swimming.” Tony spread his fingers so Sarah could think about the webbing that wasn’t there. They’d looked at a book of animals yesterday and he’d explained about the webbed feet of frogs when she’d asked, so he knew she would be able to imagine it. “And he recognized Captain America in the ice.”

Sarah looked over at Steve with a seriously worried expression. “Were you cold?”

“I don’t remember,” Steve said earnestly. “I don’t like the cold though. Also this isn’t…”

Before the mood could shift, Tony cut Steve off and continued: “Meanwhile the soldier was dreaming. And perhaps he did dream of a handsome merman come to rescue him from his icy coffin.”

“Like Sleeping Beauty.” Sarah nodded mollified. 

“And something… maybe the ice had shifted, perhaps it had cracked, but there was something there… muscles working, eyes moving in slumber… The merman caught it… _Thought_ he caught a movement.”

“Oh!” Their little bean knew the rescue was coming now and settled excitedly back against Tony to hear that part.

“The moment he saw it the merman…,” 

“Does the merman have a name? Tony perhaps?”

He glowered at Steve and his slightly mocking expression. “He might be called Hank or Don if you’re not careful.” 

It went right over Sarah’s head who tugged his sleeve to get him back to the story.

“The moment the merman realized the man in there was alive he gasped and — well, in his surprise he might have said something little girls are not supposed to shout in surprise.”

“Shi…” she started to say her new favorite word that she’d brought home from kindergarten — or might have picked up at home with so many heroes running in and out. Tony pushed a hand in front of her mouth to cut it short.

“The merman gets to say it,” he said. “It’s a merman word.”

“Okay,” she agreed.

“After a moment more of contemplation the merman promised: ‘I’ll get you out. Just hold on, Cap.’ Of course the soldier couldn’t move, or go, or wake or vanish. Perhaps in his dream he felt the loss of company, realized the light around him faded as the merman swam away as fast as he could go. Perhaps he settled in for more years in the ice. But wonders of wonders...”

“He came back!”

“The merman came back, yes. But not alone. He had friends you see waiting for him at the surface. They’d been the ones asking him to search the depths for the wreckage of another plane and something green… Now when he told them what he found they were overjoyed to hear he’d found their lost hero and so they helped him get the block of ice out of the depth.” 

“What were their names?” Sarah asked.

“Janet, Hank and Don,” Tony said. “All explorers. Together they smashed through the ice and hauled the soldier’s unresponsive form in. They helped getting him out of the water and on their little plane.”

“And the merman?”

“He hauled himself out of the ocean beside the soldier who stirred now that the ice was melting. It took the merman effort and strength to move on land but he hauled himself up and onto the landing patch and watched the soldier come back to life. Then the soldier opened his eyes. First thing he saw was the wet face of the merman above his, as the creature was making sure he was breathing. 

‘In his years in Europe, fighting the evils of Hydra, the soldier had seen many strange and terrible, and some wondrous things. This was something else entirely.

As he looked up,” Tony gave Steve a pointed look, “he said:...”

Steve sighed silently, acknowledging that he was supposed to be part of this bedtime story extravaganza in more ways than simply being the unwilling protagonist of this fairytale. “He said: ‘ Okay, wow, rescue by a merman. That’s a new one.’ Of course, he was mesmerized.”

Tony chuckled. 

“Of course, he was. It was an attractive merman, after all. ‘Not what you expected?’ the merman asked and grinned. I’m glad you’re alive, Cap. You have no idea what it’ll mean for the world to hear about you being alive. All my life I heard stories of your deeds!’

‘Will they hear about how you rescued me?’

The merman shook his head. His human friends had arrived to stand around the Captain, looking down at him in awe. 

‘You can never tell… I trust these people, but I have no intentions of becoming a lab experiment or being captured by your curious scientists when…’ “

“Nobody has kissed!” Sarah exclaimed. “He woke up without a kiss!”

Tony blinked and looked at Steve who shrugged. 

“The soldier wasn’t cursed to sleep by magic, Sarah. There was no kiss needed to wake him,” Tony explained.

He couldn’t see her face, but he could feel her frowning with her whole body, folding her arms and sticking her chin out like Steve did sometimes when he wasn’t too pleased.

From where he was standing Steve could see it clearly. Which, Tony assumed, was why he smiled and said: “That’s when Captain America leaned up and pushed a kiss on the man’s lips. He’d been frozen for so long and this was life. And this beautiful and impossible man had come to his rescue. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘You saved me. I will forever hold your secrest.’”

“How chivalrous,” Tony commented — and Steve gave him an answering smile.

Sarah frowned at both of them not sure she was satisfied with this turn of events. Perhaps it was dawning on her that she’d requested her in-story dad to kiss a merman who resembled Tony — but couldn’t be him.

Steve caught her expression first.

But Tony reacted faster: “With the kiss something even stranger happened! In front of the soldier's eyes the scales turned to metal. The webbed fingers with the claws — made for swimming and hunting — turned into human hands then metal formed around them too and before long the merman was a human man — same black hair, same blue eyes, same red lips. But where before there had been a fishtail and scales there were now legs encased in red and gold armor. ‘Tony’, one of the friends around them cried. ‘The curse! It’s lifted.”

Steve chuckled and Sarah squealed in delight.

“ ‘I’m Tony Stark,’ the man introduced himself. I have to thank you now — but please never breathe a word about this to anyone. Magic. So annoying!’ It’s the least the soldier could do. So he agreed, of course!”

“And they kiss?”

“They seal the promise with a kiss.”

“Not what happened though,” Steve pointed out.

“But a fun story! One more!” Sarah cried in delight.

“Oh no,” Tony disagreed. “Bedtime for you, princess.” He helped Sarah slip under the covers. “We sealed this promise with a kiss too,” he reminded her and kissed her brow again. “New story tomorrow.”

“One about how you became Iron Man. I want to hear your take on that,” Steve suggested.

“Yes!” Sarah squealed. 

“Sarah agrees with me,” Steve pointed out smugly. He too kissed her goodnight, made sure she was tucked in and there were no monsters under the bed.

* * *

Later, when Tony was settling down to do some work and Steve watched him from their living room. Tony asked: “What are you thinking about?”

Leaning back in his chair he waited for Steve to walk over and was surprised when Steve grabbed him by the chin, pulled his face up and kissed him firmly.

“Reward for my story telling?“ Tony asked when Steve let up a bit.

“Sealing the promise with a kiss. Tomorrow we get to hear the bedtime adaptation of Iron Man’s beginnings.”

Tony chuckled. He didn’t even bother to pull his face from Steve’s grasp. “You realize this was at least the third version of the ‘How we found Cap’ story?”

“Really?” Steve kissed him again. “I want to hear all of them when you’re done here.”

“For bedtime?”

Straightening his shoulders and getting ready to leave Tony to his work, Steve caught his eyes and held them: “You’ll tell me and I promise there won’t be much sleeping involved in this bedtime.”

Tony laughed. He knew Steve always kept his promises — most of all those sealed with a kiss.


End file.
